Ken Hall: Put Congress to work patrolling the borders

The crowd was fat and happy in ways that can only be explained by two weeks on a cruise ship. During all that time, the worst inconvenience was waiting for the pool butler — that's what it said on the shirts — to rearrange the deck chairs.

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By Ken Hall

recordonline.com

By Ken Hall

Posted Mar. 21, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Ken Hall
Posted Mar. 21, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

The crowd was fat and happy in ways that can only be explained by two weeks on a cruise ship. During all that time, the worst inconvenience was waiting for the pool butler — that's what it said on the shirts — to rearrange the deck chairs.

So when it came time to disembark, the news coming over the loudspeaker in five different languages was all that they had come to expect. Things were going smoothly and they could count on getting off with no delay.

Then the unthinkable happened. There were delays and they were building. The cause? The sequester.

Because the Customs staff was short a few workers, the lines were backing up and what had promised to be a speedy process turned into something else. Give those fat and happy passengers the chance to dwell on their inconveniences and they will grasp at the opportunity. So that's what they did.

A scientific survey — OK, it was really just a guy from Wisconsin in the line next to me, but I'm sure he was speaking for the majority — revealed two distinct opinions:

If the government was going to cut some expenses, as it surely must, it could find a better way. There were vague allusions to waste in the Pentagon but nothing more specific.

And if those people in Congress could not do their jobs, they should pay the price. It's a sentiment that comes up often and it usually involves the perception that if we could cut the salaries and benefits of elected officials our overspending woes would disappear.

If you do the math, you'll realize that as satisfying as it might be to trim those expenditures, they have almost no effect. Force senators and others to go on furlough for a few weeks and neither the national debt nor the tax bill would change. Those salaries are very small drops in very large seas.

But there is another way to satisfy that very understandable urge to make these politicians feel the effects of their votes. We could make them fill in for some of the workers they are so quick to send on unpaid vacations. And I have the perfect job — border security.

As the call for immigration reform picks up, no serious proposal stands a chance unless it contains a provision to secure our borders. And nothing would make those borders more secure than the kind of surge that so many were so quick to embrace as the best way to win the war in Iraq.

The House and Senate are full of lawyers so they have some familiarity with law enforcement. And the recent focus on gun control has most members of Congress rushing to demonstrate their proficiency with firearms. Even the president shoots skeet.

So let's close Congress for a few weeks and send the members to California, New Mexico or wherever they are most needed. In the spirit of the Second Amendment, they can form a well-regulated militia and supply their own weapons.